Within the UK, it is expected there will be over 17 million people aged over 65 by 2035 which accounts for almost one in four of the population. We are undergoing a fundamental change to our age structure, many people are having fewer children and living longer lives and as a result the average age of our society is on the increase.

Reports indicate nearly half the world’s nations have total fertility rates (TFR) below the replacement level of just over two children per women. By 2050 the world’s TFR could potentially fall below replacement levels resulting in an older population demographic worldwide. Looking to Japan and Italy, their populations are already in decline.

The 7thTommy Flowers Institute Conference will taking place on the 10th and 11th September 2019. Hosted at Adastral Park, Ipswich we would be delighted if you could join us where we will explore the opportunities and challenges of an ageing society.

We are living longer, over the course of two days we’ll look at how we can exploit technology and innovation to the maximum so we can adapt to this change in demographic, ranging from fitness technologies to keep us healthier for longer, to the use of robotics and AI to help with assisted living.
Please look out for further details on our social media streams as we build out our agenda, places are allocated on a first come first serve basis therefore please register as soon as possible if you would like to attend this event. Note, there is no charge for this conference.

Transport these days is not just getting into a car or an airplane for a trip, or loading a container on a lorry.

IoT interconnects everything with everything and enables ways of transport never imagined before.

Blockchains enable new ways of authentication and new technologies from autonomous driving via drones and modern Zepplins.

The type of personal transport through the centuries always was an expression of status, whether walking barefoot or in shoes, riding a horse or a mule, driving a cart or a carriage, or in this modern world the choice of brand of car. Yet, will we be able to afford individual transport as we know it in the future.

We will have key industry, government and academic speakers discussing the problems we face now and in the future, state of the art technologies, and a vision of the future. And we will give our audience the opportunity to dive into solution mode with a real world problem and the chance to question and network our experts. Please see the draft agenda below.

To stay in the lead, industries need to innovate. Although we are in the telecoms sector, innovation and new ideas can be found anywhere. But why so often don’t we see the opportunities which are right in front of our eyes? Can we actively change how we look at innovation? What can we learn from existing examples of 'Repurposed Innovation‘?

We will be looking at how ideas from different industry sectors can be unexpectedly applicable in the ICT sector. The agenda will mix up industry and academic experts, drawing upon unexpected technologies. Here are just a few of the confirmed mashups:

Hitachi will talk about IoT applied to agritech, medtech and more

Techmahindra will talk about neuroscience applied to AI

Open University will talk about blockchain applied to education

Bristol Robotics Lab will talk about soft robots that could be used in telecom ducts

TDS will demo a tethered drone system that can be used in emergency situations

And we will have speakers from the UK Government's Satellite and Digital Catapults

In order to successfully peek into the future one must understand the past. Have you ever been asked what sort of television you had when you were young, in order to guess your age? Throughout history television has been redefined ... read more

As ICT becomes an
increasingly central part of society, the ICT industry must protect our
customers and ourselves - from deliberate external and internal attacks and
from both external events and unintended internal accidents. Technology can
empower users so that they can protect themselves and their data, but these new
capabilities can in turn enable new kinds of attack, or have unintended
consequences, so there is constant evolution across technology, user behaviour,
and the perception of human rights. Users need to trust the underlying
infrastructure in order to make full use of it, and maintaining users’ trust
requires a credible track-record of secure operation, when the technology base
is constantly evolving. So the ICT industry itself needs to be able to trust
the AI and other mechanisms we are using to manage and protect our
infrastructure.

Fixed, mobile and IoT (Internet of Things) infrastructures are coming together as technology evolves, but it is the user who remains the point at which all this technology truly converges. It is the experience of the user that matters. Network engineering and data science combine in order to serve the users' need to communicate with each other wherever and whenever, to be entertained, and to control their environment on the switch of a button.

The ICT industry faces and ongoing challenge to cost-effectively deliver the connectivity and the performance required.

The
Tommy Flowers Institute, who’s aim is to develop ICT researchers for leadership excellence, launch their first conference, “Future Organisation – how to build agility and customer
focus?” at the end of February. It will be attended by sponsored PhD students, UK Academia and members from the ICT Industry. Read more here.